Focus on Nature

Saturday, August 13, 2016

For all of you that have enjoyed this blog over the last 10 years you should know that it all started due to the man pictured above.
Denis introduced me to blogging and nurtured my love of photography and the natural world.

As a naturalist with attitude he was not afraid to take on the big issues and was a champion of causes such as those to stop fracking and the preservation of aquifers that supported fragile and rare environments.

Denis passed peacefully in the early hours yesterday after a long battle with leukemia.

Always upbeat and a fighter to the end he was a positive example and mentor to many over many years.

We continue in the memory of him and the example he set. You will be missed Denis.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

On a recent trip to the inland of Australia I was able to check out some temporary surface waters around the South Australian and Northern Territory borders.

To my surprise I was able to capture a fierce battle between a horse shoe crab like creature and what I assume are two small predatory larvae.

As the waters do not last very long the race is on to grow and procreate with these tadpole sized players fighting hard to survive. I had been informed that the little horse shoe crab like creature had been found in ponds on top of Uluru after eggs had been blown in the winds with the smallest ponding of water enough to hatch them.

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Since the discovery of the mouth cancer that has decimated over 90 percent of the Tasmanian Devil population back in 2009 moves have been made to ensure the continuance of this unusual marsupial.

The South East Peninsular is being used as a sanctuary to release disease free animals in an attempt to stabilise the wild population numbers. The land of the peninsular is separated from the rest of the island by a man made canal used originally to hamper the escape of convicts.

Devil's will posture over food and occasionally this ends in nasty bites that can spread a transmittable cancer. This is one of only two types of cancer possible to transmit and it is done so through open wounds caused during a fight. The only other known example of such a cancer is transmitted dog to dog.

There may also be a feline strain though I believe it has not been substantiated yet.

Keeping track of animals released in the sanctuary is carried out by staff from UnZoo to monitor numbers and gain a better knowledge of this elusive and relatively unknown creature.

When in Tassie make sure you pay them a visit.

If and when the disease dies out in wild populations, the plan is to restock the island from the captive breeding programs. As not all animals in the wild will succumb it may take years to ensure that reinfection cannot occur and that the strain of cancer is extinct.

Monday, May 04, 2015

Autumn is well underway with wet cold weather driven by powerful east coast lows giving snow above 1500m. Here hasn't been so bad with most of the extreme weather being coastal.

A shift in lighting has occurred with short spectacular evenings followed by crisp nights.

Here the moon rises above clouds, the scene tinted by the low sunlight, followed by an overview of Tumut in the NSW Southern Tablelands displaying Autumn colours.

Below is a case moth caterpillar.

Back in October I found a case moth caterpillar at the start of a late spring.

Both were advanced specimens with cases measuring around 20cm in length.

Both found at the opposing boundaries of winter.

With not much in the way of fresh greens left and a cold winter on the way these caterpillars have a few months before warmer weather affords new growth. They seem to have a number of suitable plant species producing leaves to eat. This may allow winter feeding though all food plants observed so far have been deciduous.

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Little did I know the fun we were in for over summer back in late October at the time of my last post.

With over 2 months of searing heat consistently reaching the mid 40's in the Celsius scale and some nights still 30 Celsius at midnight the skies were free of birds and creatures great and small retreated to whatever haven they could find from the relentless temperatures.

It was within this oven like environment I found myself and awaited for more than the industrious ants and my dying garden to shoot.

Autumn has brought some relief and some needed rain ( I think we had about 10 mm total over summer)

so I am back at it.

Considering how rare the following scene has been I shall start with this. Storm clouds bringing much needed rain and helping bring back life to all.

Still awaiting the big thunder storms to produce some good lightning shots.